“Why don’t you figure that out yourself? I’m leaving,” I said about to mount my horse, but he yanked me back down. I tried to pull his arms off me, but he held tight. He had one arm wrapped around my waist and the other right under my neck across my chest. Seemed a little over the top, considering he could have probably held me back with his pinky.
But I wouldn’t complain because it worked great for my little plan. And it might have felt nice . . .
“You missed me, Weston? This kinda seems like a welcome home hug.”
He squeezed me. “More like an I’m inches from snapping your neck hug.”
“You always know exactly what to say to make a woman feel special.”
“You’re delusional if you think that was the only way I could control you.”
Oh, so this little hold was supposed to show me he could still physically control me if he couldn’t compel me anymore. There wasn’t anything I could do about that, but there was one thing I could eliminate.
“You are delusional if you think I am stupid enough to let you.” Before he could process what I meant, I bit down on the arm right next to my face. I bit so hard that I could taste his blood in my mouth.
He shoved me away, and I stumbled to stay standing. I turned around and watched him look at his arm with disbelief. I imagined he was shocked that I had ruined his little plan to get me to open the seal. I never expected the real reason.
I licked the blood off my lips, and his heated gaze locked onto the motion. I had only bitten him and yet he looked at me as if I’d just had sex with him. Granted, I didn’t know what that looked like, but I was imagining. My skin flushed.
His gaze finally left my lips and met mine. He took a step towards me and then clenched his fists and stopped himself. “Do you have any idea what you’ve just done?”
“No, not really,” I said coolly.
He shook his head and rubbed his jaw in disbelief. Then he laughed coldly. “If you wanted to eventually get away from me, this was not the way to do it.”
“You won’t be able to force me to open the seal now. There is no reason you need me around,” I explained.
“Except for the pain that we will both feel.”
I blinked. “What?”
“Who gave you this idea?”
A strange woman who I was uncertain was even a woman . . . Sounded insane, so I settled with, “None of your business.”
“I’m sure they didn’t explain that once my blood hit your tongue, that you can’t be away from me. Ever.”
My stomach sank as I looked at him with wide eyes. No, she definitely didn’t tell me that. Why had I trusted what the woman/thing told me? She had fooled me twice now. And naive was definitely still tacked onto my name. Thinking about her only gave me the chills, so I pushed them away.
“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked, feeling very apprehensive about my decision. “You’re away from Maxim.”
He shook his head. “That’s fucking different, Calamity!”
“Don’t yell at me!” I now felt like I had made a very bad mistake.
“That’s because you fucking did!”
“Shut up! It was the only way to keep you from making me open the seal. If you wouldn’t have taken my blood in the first place, then this wouldn’t have happened!”
His eyes narrowed. “It was my right, and I’d do it again.”
“Your right? In what strange land do you live in?”
“Alyria, actually. You must not follow the laws because a woman is the property of a man. Considering I am the only one in your life, that makes you mine. Now that we’ve shared blood, that makes you undeniably mine.”
I clenched my fists. “Say that again and I will kill you myself,” I growled.
“If you kill me, then you’ll most likely die, too.”